RHODES SCHOLARS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 19, 24 January 1929, Page 13

RHODES SCHOLARS

ELECTION IN AMERICA

A BIG CANDIDATURE

(From "The Post's" Representative.) NEW YORK, 24th Dec.

Results of the annual election of Rhodes scholars are announced by Dr. Frank Aydelotte, president of Swarthmore College and American secretary to the Rhodes trustees.

A Rhodes scholar was elected in each of thirty-two States, to begin work at Oxford University next October. For the thirty-two scholarships open this year there were 398 candidates, each of whom had previously been selected to represent his college or university in the competition.

Four students from Yale were elected, including George T. Washington, who is said to be a direct descendant of the brother of General Washington. Washington was elected from Connecticut. V ft The only other college to obtain more than one candidate was Dartmouth, which is represented by two students. The excellent record made by two West Pointers elected to Rhodes scholarships three years ago will create special interest here in the election of a cadet of the Military Academy to the scholarship from New York. Ono New York University student also was elected as representative of New Mexico. Harvard, Princeton, and Lehigh obtained one Rhodes scholar each. ■ ' • ' ■ TERMS OP QUALIFICATION. A student to qualify as a Rhodes scholar must either be a resident of the State or have received at least two years of his college education in one of the colleges in that State. The scholarships, awarded upon the basis of intellectual attainments, combined with qualities of character and leadership and interest in outdoor sports, are tff.od for two years, with an optional third, and with an annual stipend of £400. The appointment formerly was for three years, but this election marks the beginning of the new basis of tenure, because it is now possible for an American graduate to take a degree at Oxford in two years. The scholar may remain an extra year, provided his record justifies it and he presents a satisfactory plan of study. Further changes, are contemplated, Dr. Aydelotte pointed out, in a Bill now before the British Parliament. Passage of this measure would make it possible to change the. basis of appointments from States to. districts, as proposed several years ago by tho American Rhodes scholars, and endorsed by educational authorities in this country. TIME FOR ACHIEVEMENT. Dealing' With Cecil Rhodes 'a ideal that his scholarships might produce an English-speaking Imperial leader, and criticism of tho Rhodes scholars, their doings at Oxford and in after life, the "New York Times," in an editorial, says:— "The answer to the ■ charge that Rhodes men remain as a group obscure in American life seems conclusive; the oldest of them are barely 40 and just entering their zone of high achievement, while those who have made important progress have turned to the cloistered occupations of scholarship, economies, Government service, and the law. Their percentage of emergence in the trade which familiarises names only a little less easily than public life —creative fiction—is high, with ChirstopLer Morley and Elmer Davis springing quickly to mind. "The accusation that tho students too often arc athletes need hardly bo answered. In fact, the most ponderable criticism of the : workings of the plan is questioning tho requirement that the students be chosen by States, as if they wore Senators, with New York, for example, being entitled to no more places than Arizona. Now Parliament is being asked to change tho selective arrangement and divide this country into districts.' That may improve the quality of the educational exiles. But even as things stand they, are making their mark in this country, and' their turn toward public life is not yet overdue."